Romney set for primary romp in Illinois

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann arrive for a town hall-style meeting in Vernon Hills, Illinois, this week.
Photo: AFP

White House hopeful
Mitt Romney
looks set for a primary romp in President
Barack Obama
's home state which will bring the plodding Republican nominating race a step closer to the finish line.

Rival Rick Santorum was unbowed by polls showing Romney with a 15-point lead in Illinois as he rallied conservatives to stay true to their principles rather than give their vote to a moderate just because he is the "choice of the establishment Republicans".

A Santorum upset appears unlikely, however, and a resounding win in Illinois would provide Romney with momentum before Louisiana's primary on Saturday and contests in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, DC on April 3.

Romney also has a commanding lead in the all-important delegate count as he seeks to be the Republican contender to take on Democrat Obama in the November 6 vote.

"I voted for Romney because I think he's the best candidate to beat Obama," George Paterson, 77, told AFP after casting his ballot in the affluent Chicago suburb Wilmette.

"I wish he was a little more specific [on policy], but anything's better than what we have now."

Janet Langdon, 36, said she and her husband "love Mitt" and what he did for Massachusetts, where they used to live.

"The country needs to be run more like a business and he can do that," she said.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

Investment analyst William Florida usually votes Democrat, but also cast a ballot for Romney in the state's open primary on Tuesday US time and said he would consider voting for the former Massachusetts governor in November.

"I voted for Romney because I think he's more tolerant than the rest of the Republicans," Florida, 46, said.

"I want to see two good candidates this fall rather than one bad one."

Romney may have a better chance of winning over moderates and independents crucial to winning a general election. But he has been weakened by his failure to win over the Republican party's conservative base in the gruelling state-by-state primary race.

Written off in the early days, former Pennsylvania senator Santorum has steadily notched up wins – 10 out of the past 31 contests – largely with the help of evangelicals and the party's most conservative members.

Romney's campaign has spent millions flooding the Illinois airwaves with negative ads calling Santorum an "economic lightweight" and "Washington insider" who has voted against his principles in the past.

Santorum, meanwhile, wrapped himself in the cloak of late president Ronald Reagan – a conservative icon – and insisted Republicans could beat Obama in November only if they elect a "true conservative".

"There's one candidate in this race who can never make this race about freedom because he simply abandoned freedom when he was governor of Massachusetts," Santorum told supporters gathered in Reagan's boyhood home of Dixon, Illinois on Monday.

The candidates' spouses have also joined the fray. Santorum's wife, Karen, insisted in a rare television interview that her husband was pro-women and would not seek to block access to birth control, despite his personal opposition to it.

Four Republican contenders are fighting to win the 1144 delegates needed to lock up the nomination and the winner is to be crowned at the party convention in Tampa in August.

About half-way through the race, Romney has 516 delegates, Santorum has 236 and former house speaker
Newt Gingrich
has 141, says the website Real Clear Politics.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a small-government champion, has about 66.

Santorum's campaign has been urging Gingrich – who has won only two contests – to drop out of the race to consolidate the conservative vote.

Should Romney do well in the more liberal East Coast states, as expected, he could well be in an unstoppable position mathematically by the end of next month.

A Rasmussen national poll gave Obama a six-point lead over Santorum, but a statistical tie with Romney.